Can't remember where I left off.....

Keep us posted as I am considering doing a solar system myself, nothing on the scope of yours but maybe 15kW max. I am wondering if it might be better to simply do the garage first which houses the freezers, my main concern, then complete the project for the house the following year after I get more experience/knowledge. I don't think I will tie into the grid except a sensor to monitor failure to switch to solar. Also, considering a propane generator too, almost put one in this year but winter caught me and didn't want to screw with it, winters are serious here so having another look come Spring. Anyway, keep us posted on your progress and any tips and gotcha's you run into along the way. I do know that the larger panels are coming soon, maybe already, about 500 watts or more...

 

Having a debate about breaking it into 2-3 independent systems. The house and the barnyard would it seems to me be better split up. The machine shed roof faces slightly to the SW and has a almost perfect pitch to cover with panels and the 40' tool container could donate the back 10' to battery and component housing. Also only 40 feet from the Co-Op Meter and disconnect box for the Barnyard, the Commercial Kitchen, and the Cabin. Seems like it would be a simple matter to pull the cables from the meter to the disconnect box and connect the solar cables in. The Machine shed has a 200amp breaker, The Commercial kitchen a 200amp, the Cabin a 100amp and open 100amp that used to feed the old Mobile home. I did all of the electric lines underground in conduit so I want to use the same lines and disconnect box if possible. I am not going to be generating anywhere near the 600amps feeding in from the Co-op line to the disconnect box. The second Co-Op service is about 1000 feet down line from the first and has a single 600amp line from its disconnect to a very big breaker box in the new house. I just used 40-100amp breaker to feed out of the house former barn to everything that needed electric within a couple hundred feet of the barn/house. Where that electric service and disconnect box is at is ideal for post and rail ground mounted panels. So the debate is one big system at the end of the line feeding 200 feet away to the house and 1000 feet away to the first service disconnect box. For that debate to end I am going to have to have someone a lot smarter than me with electric distance and resistance take a look at it.

Been working hard to reduce the electric use and making a lot of conversions from electric to LP on the hot water heaters and stoves. Changed the Big Air Conditioner in the Cabin to one of the LG MiniSplit window units that is basically a heat pump in a box that looks like a big 20k btu air conditioner. It was a $2500 experiment that worked out kind of as intended. It blow ice cold air and cut the Cabins summer electric use by 55% Converting the stove and water heater to LP cut another 10% and the lights to all LED another 5% The big electric users in the cabin now days are the coffee maker, the electric griddle, the microwave, toaster, TV and the Desktop Computers LOL my Cabin is still a Southern Region State Field Office packed with computers and files. Someday Mrs Krap will either retire or move all that stuff back to the actual regional office and her real work office and I will have unrestricted access to MY CABIN AGAIN!!! And I won't have to live in my KRAP KAVE KAMPER! Can't abbreviate that due to negative racial undertones it might convey Anyway 3 work desktops and her personal desktop plus her TV suck a lot more electric than one would think.

I started 2022 with a averaged monthly electric use of 3882KWH per Month in 2021. That Average at the end of 2022 is 1057KWH per month. Most of that was NOT Running the Commercial Kitchen, Not having 3 food trailers plugged into their 50amp outlets between shows, getting rid of the Walk in Freezer and Fridge, cutting the chest freezers from 12 to the 5 most energy efficient. A few more areas I can cut out like unplugging 2 of the 4 upright refrigerators, Putting a 12k minisplit heat pump on the Krap Kave Kamper It takes a 10k AC to keep this tin can cool in the summer and my Big Buddy heater does a fine job of keeping warm in the winter a 40 gallon propane tank last me 2 months until it gets below 20 degrees outside then a 40 will last a Month, single digit and sub zero I gotta turn the electric heater on in the bedroom or wake up with frozen snot in the nose

My goal is to get the average down to 800KWH per month. The Co-Op is already among the highest rates around, Ameren doubled their rates last summer and they are still lower than our Co-Op. From what I am reading and hearing the Co-Op is going to follow suit with Ameren and Double their rates in July/August Guess we gotta pay for the giant solar farm they finished building last summer or rather paid to have built and now lease from a company in FL. And every time we turn around there is a new tax or surcharge on the electric bill. I gotta get that rat cut off my neck! Even getting cut back to where we are now on electric use the bills are $340-$360 per Month and if what I hearing about the rate hike we will be right back up to $700 per month again with the current use. At 2021 use we would be running $2,500+ electric bills with the rate hike. Then one of the more recent Co-Op newsletters talk about the need in the future for service interruptions during peak hours. It all translates to me as Much More Expensive and even less dependable electric. LOL the power already goes out for 4 to 12 hours at least one day per week on clear blue sky days with maybe a hint of a breeze...... Usually a squirrel or a bat and transformer involved in those outages.

To me it only makes sense at this point to build my own power company when we will be paying $8500 per year for electric, even I built the system out of pocket without all of the handouts it would not take too many years for the system to pay for itself and be more dependable than the grid. I am a big fan of solar on the individual and even the small community level. All this Grid Conversion is proving to be very expensive and is not meeting the demand. And at this point it is looking like it is only going to keep getting more expensive and even less dependable The current state of electric service and rates is and has been on of my rage topics for a while LOL.

 

The last couple of months has really changed the flow of things. I spend more time sitting at..........

And a lot less time working on........


With the medical crisis side track things got real crazy real fast! I had not even been out to the lake and ponds over the last month until yesterday. The water has risen between the snow and a couple of good rains. Areas where I knew erosion would start being a issue are becoming a issue I won't be able to get more rock in around the ponds and lake until probably May/June and even if I had dumped at the end of the roads I have built so far, I still couldn't spread it. Mud Season is HERE LOL. I also failed to get all of my grass seed planted and while I could still get it broadcast it would just sit there doing nothing until the end of March. So I broke down today after Mrs Krap's appointments and drove over to the tile, culvert, Erosion Control store and bought ten 8'x112' plastic mesh/staw mats to cover up the little pond dam on both sides and the back side of the big pond dam. Would not think as thin as this stuff is that it would do much to stop erosion but it does.


So tomorrow I am going broadcast spread the pond dams and rolls this stuff out on them and pin it down. half the see will rot and get ate by birds before it can sprout but it is what it is and worst case I have reseed in the spring.

Here is where I was working when the "It is Cancer" Call came. Taking another 3' out of the big pond bed around the islands. And raising the islands up a few more feet. At that time I was scraping a box full, dumping it on the island and just going in circles and repeating. Tractor would be underwater now on the far side of this island. I am probably going to regret not putting a 6" pipe with a valve to drain the pond in the dam. Since now I am going to have use a big trash pump to drain it down next summer to finish the bed work. And yep I really did build that dam with a 57hp tractor and 6' box blade



The Deer have only increased in numbers. Looking through the game cameras pics there are at least 40 different deer visiting daily and possibly 60. Not hunting any this season, just observing.


Going to clear the underbrush between the new house and the big pond out when I can. Will have a pretty good view to the West from the back deck. That section of the woods qualifies as dense jungle by about the end of May. Low spot to the right that the pond will flood about 2' deep as it sits. I want to get the trees cut down and the stumps pushed out and make it about 4' deep down the middle of it. Tip of it ends about 50 feet to the right of the house... Good Place to park my little jon boat



Was getting back in the truck to head back up to the Cabin and felt like I was being watched